These handwritten letters were received from children at the Dilley detention center in south Texas in mid-January and published by ProPublica in early February. Three days later, during a House Homeland Security hearing, Rep. James Walkinshaw read some of the handwritten letters and shared drawings from the children held in ICE family detention; then questioned ICE acting director Todd Lyons about them.
Then yesterday, February 17th, Pablo Manríquez with Migrant Insider reported that “Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children.”
https://x.com/PabloReports/status/2023783585296064964
I've attached just one example.
Ariana is a 14-year-old from Honduras who was living in Hicksville, New York, and you can hear her read her own letter in the link: https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-dilley-children-letters
“Hello, my name is Ariana V.V. I'm 14 years old and I'm from Honduras, I've been detained for 45 days and I have never felt so much fear to go to a place as I feel here every time I remind myself that once I go back to Honduras a lot of dangerous things could happen to my mom and my younger siblings haven’t been able to see their mom in more than a month. They are very young and you need both of your parents when you are growing up. Since I got to this center all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression. When people have their courts the longest they will last is 15 minutes, our rights are not being provided, arrest are happening when people don’t even have any type of order, arrests are happening illegally.
It's sad to hear that peoples case are being denied and are getting send back to their country places where they are escaping from and are looking for protection and want to feel safe. Not a lot of people know what is happening in the centers where immigrants are placed at. I haven’t been getting any school time. Every single person in here had their jobs they had their lives, they aren’t any danger for this country.
I've been in this country for almost 7 years and in those 7 years my mom and I found a home and made a bigger family. I have never been separated from my siblings and its honestly sad because they are little and they need their mom and sister, yeah they are with their dad but its still different for them and my mom and I. Since the day my mom and I get detained in Manhattan NY, my life was instantly paused, from my knowledge you can’t be under custody for more than 15 or 20 days, well here in Dilley Immigration Processing Center people have been in this place for 7 months, 5 months, 4-2 months, it's not fair that the ICE officers are not following the laws. All kids are being damage mentally, they witness how they’ve been treated.
They don’t have schools, doctor, all they have are nurses, if you need medical attention the longest you have to wait is 3 hours, but to get any medicine, pill, anything it takes a while, there are various viruses people are always sick. Serious situations happen and the officers can’t take them serious enough there are no consequences, they don’t care.”
